"THE COTTESMORE IN 1826." n 



weight had often some difficulty in getting through 

 them at all ; and, unless he could find a soft place 

 that had been made by some friendly bullocks, or a 

 rail that had been put in to mend some gap, and 

 was of the barleysugar order, and like it pretty 

 brittle, it was a serious matter to bore a hole to get 

 through. There were two or three heavy men whom 

 one was glad to see out on such occasions, and who, 

 if on a horse that was used to the kind of thing, 

 could shove through almost anything. Amongst the 

 best for such work was that hardest of all hard 

 fellows, Tom Smith or Ashton Smith ; no tenpenny 

 nail that was ever forged could be harder. He 

 used to ride a brown horse with a tanned muzzle 

 that was as hard as his master, and would cram 

 through anywhere if he could only see daylight on 

 the other side ; and if he could only get his nose 

 in, he would lay his ears back, and make all crack 

 again till he was through, and then the hedge 

 would close behind him and he was seen no more. 

 Lord Alvanley's boots were a grand invention for 

 going through these hairy places ; but he found 

 them not so comfortable as he expected, for the 

 hedges being in many instances very dry, the rotten 

 pieces, many of which were composed of thorns, 



